With the surge of massive data acquisition technologies, the problem of designing new durable, reliable and high-density data storage platform has become of paramount importance. Several recently proposed solutions have centered on the use of synthetic and naturally occurring macromolecules as storage media. In particular, DNA molecules - ubiquitous carriers of genetic information - have been identified as exceptional candidates for large-scale archival data storage. We report on one such DNA-based data storage architecture that uses native (i.e., naturally occurring) bacterial DNA isolated from E.coli as the storage media, and known and new nicking enzymes as data recorders. The system is reminiscent of by now long-forgotten punch cards, with DNA replacing the cards, and enzymes replacing punching devices. This is joint work with Kasra Tabatabei, Huimin Zhao, Nagendra Athrea, Jean-Pierre Leburton and Alvaro Hernandez, University of Illinois, UC.

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